The Liberal is first and foremost an Individual. No ties to a community, no ties to a land, just a perfect bare nub that is completely replaceable and completely interchangeable. They do not see this as a problem and would be quite proud to be characterized this way.
The Liberal thinks only in terms of markets. They agree hurriedly that slavery is and was bad, but only because it prevented slaves from access to markets. Solutions to systemic injustice and inequality are presented in terms of how to improve individuals for the market, i.e. just get black people and coal miners to code and everything will be fine. They will agree that climate change is a clear danger but frame responses only in terms of regulation and technology instead of breaking out of the framework of markets.
The Liberal is an ardent interventionist. They will not think of conquest, rather of humanitarian intervention that also happens to open markets and provide resource extraction and labor on favorable terms to the advanced homeland. This does not mean the Liberal is a warhawk or jingoist. Military intervention is merely viewed at the end of a long line of discipline, from diplomatic pressure to sanctions to CIA wetwork to military advisors to full-scale war. War is viewed as wasteful and inefficient rather than horrific or wrong on the basis of human suffering (don't forget the Liberal views things primarily through markets). When Liberals protest war they primarily point to the cost to a budget as they find this to be extremely compelling.
The Liberal does not have a historic view or a view for a future beyond the status quo. The Liberal thinks history was dominated by individuals and markets, even conceives of neolithic hunter-gathering in terms of capitalist free markets. Similarly, the Liberal does not dream of a different future and will proudly proclaim things like "we are living in the end of history." In the darkest of moments of doubt, the Liberal can only imagine a general collapse and apocalypse rather than an end to capitalism and the status quo.
The Liberal is not a political actor. What politics they are in are mostly aesthetic or spectaclized and do not serve any material end beyond the maintenance of the status quo. A Liberal could just as easily by a sports fan as a politics fan, with this sense of politics. Liberals do not understand politics to be part of economics or life, not on the large scale or on the small. You may hear Liberals complain about how politics have "only recently" invaded their preferred entertainment and it is this to blame for the current decline of entertainment, rather than profit declining demanding more pablum to appeal to the widest audience for the least cost.
The Platonic Ideal of a Liberal:
The Liberal is first and foremost an Individual. No ties to a community, no ties to a land, just a perfect bare nub that is completely replaceable and completely interchangeable. They do not see this as a problem and would be quite proud to be characterized this way.
The Liberal thinks only in terms of markets. They agree hurriedly that slavery is and was bad, but only because it prevented slaves from access to markets. Solutions to systemic injustice and inequality are presented in terms of how to improve individuals for the market, i.e. just get black people and coal miners to code and everything will be fine. They will agree that climate change is a clear danger but frame responses only in terms of regulation and technology instead of breaking out of the framework of markets.
The Liberal is an ardent interventionist. They will not think of conquest, rather of humanitarian intervention that also happens to open markets and provide resource extraction and labor on favorable terms to the advanced homeland. This does not mean the Liberal is a warhawk or jingoist. Military intervention is merely viewed at the end of a long line of discipline, from diplomatic pressure to sanctions to CIA wetwork to military advisors to full-scale war. War is viewed as wasteful and inefficient rather than horrific or wrong on the basis of human suffering (don't forget the Liberal views things primarily through markets). When Liberals protest war they primarily point to the cost to a budget as they find this to be extremely compelling.
The Liberal does not have a historic view or a view for a future beyond the status quo. The Liberal thinks history was dominated by individuals and markets, even conceives of neolithic hunter-gathering in terms of capitalist free markets. Similarly, the Liberal does not dream of a different future and will proudly proclaim things like "we are living in the end of history." In the darkest of moments of doubt, the Liberal can only imagine a general collapse and apocalypse rather than an end to capitalism and the status quo.
The Liberal is not a political actor. What politics they are in are mostly aesthetic or spectaclized and do not serve any material end beyond the maintenance of the status quo. A Liberal could just as easily by a sports fan as a politics fan, with this sense of politics. Liberals do not understand politics to be part of economics or life, not on the large scale or on the small. You may hear Liberals complain about how politics have "only recently" invaded their preferred entertainment and it is this to blame for the current decline of entertainment, rather than profit declining demanding more pablum to appeal to the widest audience for the least cost.